Dear Mr. Scudder: -
I don't know how I
came to get 2 copies of Occult
Japan. I will put one where
I conceive that it will do the
most good, & write the brief
review you want about the
other. - I must, however, tell
you frankly that I am disappointed
with "Occult Japan." It is
written to make a popular belief
seem ridiculous, and a nation
ridiculous; - it was written, I
know, in a bad humor with local
criticisms uttered on Mr. Lowell's
mood; - it is written also so
as to give the western reader
a conception of things which is
neither just nor scientific.
I don't like it. It is a
tremendous piece of work, all
the same, considering that the
author kept himself entirely outside of
the world he ridicules. I have
been in that world: I don't find
it ridiculous - it is full of
beauty - and tenderness, just as it
is also full of simplicity and
scientific ignorance. I shall try
to write justly about the book, but
I wish you to know how I
feel about the matter, and what for me
even to be just under the
circumstances is far from easy.
I send a little
sketch, "In the Twilight of
the Gods." If you don't
like it for the Magazine, perhaps
it might be advantageously
added to the other eleven
papers, as No. XII.
Lafcadio Hearn
Kobe, Feb 5th '95
